When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth: and when the wicked perish, there is shouting. (Proverbs 11:10)
The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. (Psalm 58:10)
"[Vatican] Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said that ... Christians "do not rejoice" over a death ... ." (Reuters) (Vatican Information Service provides this as apparently the original of Lombardi's comment: "A Christian never takes pleasure from the fact of a man's death ... .")
Today this blog will be rejoicing over the defeat of one of God's prominent enemies.
-TurretinFan
Monday, May 02, 2011
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11 comments:
Indeed. Romans 13 tells us that the government, as ordained by God, bears not the sword in vain. The rightful and just elimination of a known killer is an example of this common grace at work.
I believe the first quote is from proverbs not psalms.
A thousand thank yous, sir! Corrected the citation.
In response to the proverb posted, someone responded with "Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles." (Prov. 24:17)
Sorry, there was more to what I was going to say. He responded to me with that. Not sure how to respond back.
Though it is hard to reconcile one's conduct and behavior, Proverbs 24:17 with Proverbs 11:10, one should, in this case, I suppose, in light of the dynamics of these Proverbs from God's Word, do both.
The action of the one, Proverbs 24:17, I suppose, is from the deep place where deep speaks to deep in one's spirit and the other, Proverbs 11:10, must then, I suppose, be actions that which comes from one's soul, mind, will and emotions.
While we war not against flesh and blood, in that we are not to overcome evil for evil done to us by others, we do have a duty to rise up and defend those who need defending and protecting prevailing for them that cannot overcome the evil being done against them.
In this case in question, Bin Laden, we can find all the realities of this dynamic in these following verses:
Rom 12:17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
Rom 12:18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Rom 12:19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."
Rom 12:20 To the contrary, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head."
Rom 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
...
Rom 13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
Rom 13:2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
Rom 13:3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,
Rom 13:4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.
Rom 13:5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience.
And as a digression, this action against Bin Laden cuts to a deep place within me seeing my son commands a BlackHawk, a part of the 101st Airborne division. Had the order been directed to his group of special forces instead of the Navy's Seals, his bird might have been a part of the order the President gave just a few hours ago that brought about this outcome that ended Bin Laden's life.
Oh Lord! Come quickly!
Rev 22:20 He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
Rev 22:21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.
If he was your own personal enemy, Fusion, that verse would be applicable.
I'm quite disappointed with the post. If we are to emulate the ways of God, then surely we should consider God's attitude:
(Ezekiel 33:11): "As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live."
Whilst this is applied to the House of Israel, by extension it applies to all humanity since God commands everyone to repent. (Although we know that only his elect will do so.) God does not delight in destroying sinful men.
When the disciples wanted to call fire from heaven down upon his enemies, he responded thusly:
"But He turned and rebuked them, [and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”] And they went on to another village." (Luke 9:55)
And, of course, the cardinal value of the Christian life is to "love our enemies" , to forgive those who abuse us - even those who wish to destroy us or put us on a cross. It seems Americans of all theological persuasions, both heretical and orthodox, want an escape hatch from this requirement and so they argue that there is a difference between personal enemies and enemies of the state. This to me is very feeble. Jesus was an enemy of the state, but he did not resist the Romans, neither did his disciples advocate rebellion against Rome or disobedience to law, even when the Romans were martyring them. This is not to gloss over justice, which is the natural God-ordained function of the state, but to establish love as the necessary hand-maiden of justice.
We read of no rejoicing when Herod, a monster greater than Osama bin Laden, was eaten with maggots and died (Acts 12:23); we are taught that those who use the sword shall also die by it (Matthew 25:56). We are also taught to live at peace with all men as much as possible (Heb 12:14; Rom 12:18).
I am perturbed by your identification of Osama Bin Laden as a prominent "enemy of God". We are ALL enemies of God and subject to sin and death in our natural estate. ALL minds are hostile to God by nature. We ALL abide under God's wrath by nature. God, by his own counsel chooses to remove the restraints from some men and allow them to behave freely according to the dictates of the sinful heart we all share. In this way, he raised up Pharaoh (Rom 9:17).
Osama Bin Laden merely displays the evil that is within us all, but which God in his mercy has delivered US. If it were not for God, we could be Osamas ourselves: "there but for the grace of God, go I" .
I am afraid that many have been swept up by the godless rejoicing of a godless world! Beware the mingling of provincial patriotism with the everlasting gospel. I recognise that this is harder to avoid in the United States than elsewhere, due to the heightened patriotism of this age, but I believe it must always be resisted.
Mr. Landless,
Do you realize that this post contrasts the Scripture and Rome and follows Scripture? That's literally all it does.
-TurretinFan
Mr Turrintanfan,
I have great respect for you, and I enjoy your blog immensely.
I recognise that your post was juxtapositioning the two, but I am not convinced that Rome is wrong on this one.
I tend to think the Old Testament texts cited emphasise that any rejoicing is directed toward God for relieving his people of the burden of the wicked; not a celebration of their death per se.
I am certainly grateful that an evil man has been taken out of the world, and view it as the beginning of his justice, but I'm far from convinced that celebrating a bad man's execution is in line with what we find in the New Testament.
Nevertheless, whilst I suspect we may disagree about this, we probably both agree that Osama's end was just.
Mr. Landless,
I tried to answer your objections in as third-person a way as possible in a new post.
http://turretinfan.blogspot.com/2011/05/answering-objections-to-rejoicing-when.html
Please don't feel obliged to answer, but I offer that up as my detailed response to your objections.
-TurretinFan
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